Posts Tagged ‘trains’

This morning when I got in the car to go to a session the temperature said -3. Not 3 degrees below freezing, 3 degrees below ZERO. It barely warmed up during the day. Our furnace is struggling to keep the house warm and I really wish I never had to leave my couch nest of blankets ever again.

Sunday:

Nursing break during Mardi Gras Sunday at church

Evan really liked the parade

Visiting a friend on the maternity ward

Monday:

Checking out the snow

THREE CHILDREN playing trains together

Linc feels the same way I do about crunches

Tuesday:

Eating candy because his mother is a sucker

He says he’s ready to go play in the snow

No problem loving his own face

Wednesday:

I DON’T CARE IF IT’S SNOWING GO TO SCHOOL

There WAS a cat sitting back there

*ALMOST* 100% on the sight words!

Thursday:

BRB Googling flights to Hawaii

Naptime friends

Celebrating Daddy’s birthday

Friday:

Lincoln-date at the carousel

And at Red Robin (YUM)

And then my Valentine’s came early!

Saturday:

God Bless iPads so parents can sleep in

These two *heart eyes*

And these two!

LOOK AT THAT I GOT MY IPHONE POST DONE ON SUNDAY. I’m very impressed with myself. Now I’m going to go find some more blankets to hide under because it’s negative something degrees again and I do not like it. Even my winter layer isn’t keeping me warm anymore. Maybe I should eat another piece of that leftover cake from E’s birthday.

Because that seems like a much nicer option than cleaning up the house the kids trashed when they still have two days before they go back to school.

Sometimes when you ask your almost-four year old what kind of birthday party he wants, he says “Goats!” and you panic. And sometimes when you ask again he says “Choo choo trains!” and you’re super happy about it because you can DO trains. Trains are awesome. You also happen to have a massive collection of electric trains in your basement from both your childhood and your husband’s childhood, so a theme is born. BOOM. Vintage train birthday party it is!

I will do this mostly in pictures, since that’s the best part. HUGE post, apologies, feel free to skip if you hate parties, etc etc etc. I’m going to put a truly insane number of photos on Facebook and Flikr too.

Decorations:

I printed banners and food labels on brown cardstock and cut pennants out of scrapbook paper (some new, some leftover from previous party supplies). The vintage stuff lying around (suitcases, globes, lanterns, etc) is from my own supply of junk collectibles or borrowed from my parents. All the train and sign clip art I made using a free fonts from dafont.com – Eisenbahn is the vintage train; old seals tfb and PostageStamps are on the water bottle labels; wmroadsigns, wmthe50s and wmtransport1 are the rest (for the record, the old fashiondy font on almost everything is CM Old Western Shadow, also from dafont.com).

My dad made the railroad crossing sign out of scrap wood in my basement and I painted the letters using a stencil I bought at A.C. Moore. Dad also built the wood table to set up the electric trains. Evan and E painted the Melissa & Doug wooden train on the food table together. The tablecloths are a collection of sheets/fabric I keep in a box just for occasions like this.

I made the Arrivals/Departures board out of just a piece of composite board painted with chalkboard paint. I made up trains and times based on family names and dates.

Food:

I made train cars with disposable aluminum trays and black cardstock to serve the food, including a coal car, veggie car, and a berry boxcar. I served lemonade in glass “milk” jars (actually Target frappuchino bottles I used for Caroline’s last two birthdays) with fancy straws, old fashioned root beer in bottles, “Chugga Chugga” water bottles and juice in Take’n’Toss cups for the kids.

And the cake is a good old-fashioned super sweet grocery store cake from Big Y. It was a Thomas cake until I took Thomas and Percy off and put a little Amtrak train on it. Boom! Custom vintage train cake.

Games:

I made the child-sized trains out of cardboard boxes I’ve been collecting for a few weeks. I covered the boxes in plain paper (the kind you buy at Ikea to go on their art easel) and cut out construction paper shapes to make them look sort of like trains. The tracks all over my house are electrical tape purchased at Home Depot. We used approximated 8 60-foot rolls (they come in packs of 10) and E free-handed all the tracks.

As a craft, I bought cheap paint, brushes and wooden cars at the craft store and let the kids decorate their own wooden trains.

My dad worked really hard to set up both model train sets so the kids could run them. That was all stuff we/he already owned but the Tyco HO gauge electric trains are really inexpensive on Ebay. The kids also played with the Thomas/Ikea/Brio wooden tracks and trains.

The kids took home their painted trains, conductor hats and train whistles as favors.

Henceforth, this week shall be known as I Am Officially Over Winter Where Is Spring?

Sunday:

Snow day cuddles

I REALLY need some black out curtains (Also: newly obsessed with Scandal)

Why are you still in my room? Princess Caroline needs her beauty sleep.

Monday:

Hide and go seek with toddlers is HILARIOUS

Thank the Pinterest Gods for free printables

Cup Cake Boss

Tuesday:

She has every deli counter person in Norwich wrapped around her finger

Checking on Toodles

Should I be concerned she’s feeding her baby gasoline?

Wednesday:

Bouncy floor blurs

Tiny Target shopper

DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT

Thursday:

More $%^&*# snow

Caroline really gets into the trains

Valentine snuggles

Friday:

Leave us alone we’re sleeping!

Do kids love these things forever???

Everything about this is adorable, but I think Caroline’s crossed ankles are the best

Saturday:

HELLO IT IS 6 AM I NEED TO DISCUSS BOBBY PINS WITH YOU

Because when you watch How To Train Your Dragon, you better dress the part

Did Target put these in JUST for my kids? (I think yes)

My goal for the week (after I finish off this supply of clearance Valentine’s candy) is to get back on the exercise and healthy-eating train. I have NOT been doing well – especially with the snow days from preschool uggggggghhhh – but the eliptical is plugged in and the gym has my name on it. If you see me on Twitter remind me to drink my water!

Are you singing it now? Do you hate Genevieve as much as I do? If you have no idea what I’m talking about, count your blessings.

The kids and I made a quick trip to Pennsylvania to visit my BFF Erin and celebrate her baby’s 3rd birthday. I guess I should stop thinking of him as a baby now but OMG when will all these kids stop with the growing up!? I can’t take it! We went down a day early to make robots out of boxes and peel crayons and other various party prep (super cute robot party pics to come) but we managed to squeeze in a whole day of trains, big and small. I think the next party I plan might have to be train-themed.

We went to a train museum in the morning that was fun for the grown ups but not particularly kid-friendly. Did you know there are hundreds of train cabooses and boxcars just sitting around that you can buy for like $9,000? Or that there are still private rail cars with kitchens and bunks that are basically RVs on rails and that Amtrak will hook them up to their trains? I am now obsessed with the idea of owning a train car of ANY KIND. Maybe I read too many Boxcar Children books as a kid (False: there’s no such thing as too many Boxcar Children books).

After lunch we went to Kempton for a special Children’s Day at the WK&S Railroad. For $14 total Evan, Caroline and I rode a little motorcar on the tracks, rode on the big train in an antique car, saw a super cool model railroad, played with the Recycled Railroad, jumped in the bounce house and had ice cream. I believe the appropriate expression is: WINNING.

Model train set up inside an actual train car

Evansville

It makes me want to get my trains out of the basement…until I remember what a total pain in the ass they are to set up and run.

This guy made a Recycled Railroad entire out of trash.

Evan was REALLY excited to “drive” the train.

These little cars went REALLY fast. Ours had a rood and a windshield so it was a little less terrifying. The kids loved it.

Caroline thought we should go faster.

Then it was time to ride the train

Engineer

We had half a car to ourselves and the kids loved it.

She’s thinking about running away.

She loved the train.

Erin is sitting next to her in this picture, holding her ankles to make sure she doesn’t fall out. Because she was REALLY determined to fall out.

Amazed that he’s actually on a train.

Dreaming

My new dream house.

Whistle!!!

Friend Reid

The tracks aren’t connected to anywhere anymore, so the engine turns around at the end of the line and we go back to the station.

And here is the part of the post where I started playing with filters to break up the 10 zillion photos.

Chillaxing, vintage style (sandals, $15, Target)

Please note: I tried tinting my eyebrows AGAIN. It was a mistake AGAIN. This picture looks even more ridiculous in color.

So happy

And then I paid $3 so Evan could ride a pony because I am a sucker.

The pony’s name was Pokey and Evan wanted to take him home.

He was so brave about everything all day. I love my little adventurer.

And then we had ice cream.

Bouncing!

I kept thinking how adorable this place would be for a wedding.

Although this was the smiliest picture I got, he liked ALL the stuff we did, not just the ice cream.

We are super busy but it’s all self-imposed business, the kind where we don’t have time to go grocery because we were at the zoo all morning and the playground all afternoon. Then I’m up too late at night putting away laundry blogging and watching The Walking Dead but I’m so exhausted when I do fall asleep I sleep like a log and wake up to a 3 year old begging to go to the zoo and the playground again. It’s not so bad, is what I’m saying.

Sunday:

I was trying to take a picture of my cute dress and Caroline decided to crawl back up the way she came out. NO.

Tomorrow is Evan’s (forced) best friend Reid’s birthday. It’s robot themed, so we’re staying up tonight making robots out of boxes and melting crayons into little silicone molds. It’s going to be pretty low key but still SUPER cute. Then we head back to Connecticut for another super awesome week of summer fun. I LOVE YOU JULY.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

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Bonjour! No I'm not French, it just sounded fancy. Sorry for the confusion. I'm Suzanne, a 36-year-old mom, photographer, Navy wife, blogger, baker, and amateur at pretty much everything else. The stars of the show are Evan, born 4/5/09, Caroline, born 12/19/2010 and Lincoln, born 7/23/2014. The last bebeh is Finnegan, born 8/30/2016 so he's a toddler now but don't talk to me about that. We live in Connecticut and enjoy it very much except for most of February and March. You can find more of my photos (or even hire me!) over on my photography site, Ginger Snaps Pictures. I love hearing from you so if you have questions, stories or ideas to share, email me at bebehblog@gmail.com .

Affiliate disclosure: some of my posts contain links which may be affiliate links. That means I get Diet Coke money if you happen to like something I mention enough to buy it. I appreciate it!